Do you guys ever think about dying?
Margot Robbie’s “Stereotypical Barbie” asks that question in the Barbie movie. It’s a thought that spurs for Barbie an existential crisis, which eventually leads to a collapsed patriarchy and Barbieland’s redemption altogether.
What remained with me after the movie wasn’t Ken’s “mojo dojo casa house” or Barbie’s not-so-subtle girl power messaging. It was, instead, a moment that took up maybe 1 percent of the movie, and epitomized director Greta Gerwig’s strength, even in a film about plastic: authenticity.
In the final minutes of the film, Gerwig included a montage of home videos, meant to show Barbie what life as a human entails — beautiful videos that were submitted by actors, crew members, and other Barbie collaborators. It’s the ultimate tribute to girlhood, and depicts women as wives, mothers, grandmothers, daughters, aunts, and friends.
Gerwig compiled a series of moments one can imagine reflecting upon at the time of death. For a montage made by Hollywood, it was a good reminder that humanity still agrees on the moments which give life meaning, like when children take their first steps, mothers hug their daughters, or friends dance randomly. The scene captured Barbie‘s parting message: that love and joy and trial sum up our collective experience, and indeed, womanhood.
Gerwig’s capacity to communicate that experience is phenomenal. Barbie‘s montage achieved the same effect as a scene in Gerwig’s 2017 hit Lady Bird, in which teenager Christine calls her estranged mother from college: “Hey, mom, did you feel emotional the first time you drove in Sacramento?” Christine asks, while scenes from a bridge in Old Sacramento play in the background. “I did, and I wanted to tell you, but we weren’t really talking when it happened. All those bends I’ve known my whole life, and stores, and the whole thing. I wanted to tell you I love you. Thank you.”
I cry watching it — every time. My fellow Sacramento native Gerwig perfectly captures the East Sacramento rose garden famous for high-school prom pictures, the J Street exit my mom used to take driving home from volleyball games, a Sacramento Kings mural that was finally finished, but only when the team overcame its decade-long dry spell, and the Pasty Shack across from the hospital in which most Sacramentans were born, where my dad stopped for a celebratory box of pastries 22 years ago. Gerwig knew which moments would inspire in her audience a sense of being. She’s written a similar love letter in Barbie, this time on a universal scale.
It’s a triumph, and hers alone.